Battlefield Hardline Review: Gadgets, Grenades & Gameplay!

First thoughts

This post is about my first impressions of Battlefield Hardline (BFH) and reviewing the major changes of it. My first impression of Battlefield Hardline (BFH) was pretty good. I personally do not think it has the usual battlefield feel to it that we are used to but it does still have the connection. It feels a lot faster paced compared to the other battlefields. Visceral has made their mark in the Battlefield community for sure. The real question is... Is it a good one?

Weapons and Melee

Weapons and melee of course are a huge aspect of shooter video games. You should have a large variety of different weapons to use that way you don't get bored of using the same weapon all the time. This is where Visceral made a mistake. Each class in battlefield as we all know is allowed to use certain types of guns. In Hardline, for example, the Professional (Recon) uses only snipers and DMR's as their primary weapon and full auto pistols, with exception for 93R, for their secondary. The problem they made here is that there is not many weapons for you to use for each class. There are only "about" 6 versions of each type of gun to use. That is not including that certain guns are for certain teams (Cops and Criminals). You have to get a certain number of kills for you to be able to use guns on both teams. This goes the same for certain melee weapons but that really doesn't have an effect on gameplay that much. The melee weapons have a wider range of options for you to choose from but most of them you have to get from a battlepack which revolves all around luck. After getting a certain number of kills with a weapon/ melee then you could get a gold camo for it. That is just a little extra they threw in there for us. You can also use a stun gun or tracking gun for a secondary if you want. LMG’s are now pick up weapons around the map and there are no more pick up snipers. The Enforcer (Support) class has Shotguns and Battle Rifles. The Battle Rifles are a full auto rifle but can be switched to single round if preferred. They have very bad kick so that is why I use single round burst.

Gadgets

Just like the weapons, each class is restricted to certain gadgets. There has not been too much of a change but there are still some. The professionals (Recons) took the most dramatic change of them all. They no longer have their "usual" spawn beacon, TUGS, and MAV. Their claymore got replaced with laser trip mines that can be placed anywhere, not just the ground. They also have the decoy still and now have a new gadget where you can become stealthier. The spawn beacon was moved to Operator (Assault). Then there are gadgets for all classes to use. These would be zip lines, grappling hooks, and gas masks. The Mechanic (Engineer) lost their rocket launchers but got the grenade launchers from the Operators (Assault). Enforcers (Support) are the only class to have breaching charges (C4).

Grenades

The grenades barely took any change at all from the transition in games. Flares were taken out of the game all together. Incendiary grenades are for cops while the criminals get molotovs. There is also tears gas available for your use. RGO Impacts are no longer in available and the same goes for the V40 minis.

Class Balance

One thing DICE has right for Battlefield 4 (BF4) is that the classes are balanced in power for the gameplay and maps. Visceral went wrong here. They have classes that way more powerful than others, such as the Operator (Assault). This class over ranks all the others by how they have assault rifles and carbines all to themselves. These gun types are the most powerful guns in game that they can do over 50% damage to an average car in one mag. They outgun almost everything unless you can get a good amount of shots on them before they return fire. I personally don’t use them because of how O.P. they are and choose to use the other classes for a true challenge. Another problem with the balancing is that the Professionals (Recon) have been strongly downgraded. The sniper rifles only can get a one shot kill if it is a headshot. If you point blank fire the sniper into their body, they won’t die unless already hurt. This angers me because I am a very Recon based player. This reduction in power doesn’t mak Battlefield Hardline very sniper friendly unless you are on PC where it is a lot easier to get those headshots. I think they should make the sniper rifles just as powerful as they were on BF3 or BF4. This also doesn’t really help that now the Professionals (Recon) barley can defend themselves at all, you become very reliant on your secondary and when you have to fight enemy vehicles you might want to run so you can live to fight another day as some might say. The only good gadget that Professionals (Recon) really have for “themselves” is the laser trip mines. Mechanics (Engineer) and Enforcers (Support) have not had too many drastic changes that would affect the class much at all.

Overall Gameplay

Overall the game is still very enjoyable and fun. I would recommend it to even the closest of friends and family. Yes it does have a battlefield feel to it but its own significant kind. It is a lot faster paced and the new game modes added on are very fun and worth the try. I will still be using my Professional (Recon) class because of how dedicated I am to master is as I have on past Battlefields. As the community it is our job to play the game and give our advice and what we want for them to fix. In the end I think the mark Visceral has made on the Battlefield community is a good one! I wish them the best of luck for future Battlefield games!

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